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PACE, or the Preflight* Analysis and Conversion Engine, is a digital diagnostic and conversion tool for figure files. It helps users ensure that their figures meet PLOS requirements and that the quality of published figures is as high as possible.

Quality checks performed:

File type

Figure dimensions

Color mode

Resolution (TIFF)

Layers (TIFF)

Alpha channels (TIFF)

Compression (TIFF)

Fonts (EPS)

When PACE detects that a figure file passes objective quality checks it will confirm the results in a Quality Report.

When PACE detects that a figure file has failed to meet the quality checks, it will provide information about the failed check(s), and if able, will automatically convert the figure file into an acceptable file that passes quality checks.

PACE does not evaluate the content of the figures, nor the subjective aspects of image quality that require human evaluation. For this purpose, PACE provides views of the converted files so users can check image sharpness, color, text quality and legibility, correctness of content, and other subjective elements.

PACE saves and stores all of your original and PACE generated files for up to seven days.